Paddy Davitt delivers his West Brom verdict after Norwich City’s battling Championship draw.

1. Line in the sand

Johannes Hoff Thorup likened Norwich’s pre-international downturn to more head winds than a full on howling gale. The inference being there was no need to search for the panic button at Colney despite a trio of Championship defeats. Although he joked after this hard-fought draw that should be upgraded to a ‘storm’ of adversity.

Plenty of circumstantial evidence in the number of key senior personnel unavailable through injury or suspension, and the sense the understudies were not ready to step up at Sheffield Wednesday or at home to Bristol City, after the wheels came off late at Cardiff.

But against a West Brom side unbeaten in seven, and with more players missing, not less, when the team news dropped, this represented a solid point.

Particularly after a see-saw opening period that saw the Canaries fall behind, get back on level terms and then in front, only to be pegged back again by Josh Maja in a frenetic first half.

The punches from both protagonists lacked the same venom after the break in the driving rain, but Norwich still fashioned enough chances on the counter to have delivered a win for those 2,500-strong travelling supporters.

But with players to return in the games ahead this display should rekindle the flame that had started to flicker.

2. Flexible Forson

No wonder Thorup had Amankwah Forson in a fatherly embrace, as they strolled around the Hawthorns playing surface pre-match.

You can imagine some paternal words of advice to the 21-year-old ahead of a rare start, given a turbulent beginning to his Norwich career. Thorup admitted afterwards the time had come for a ‘reset’.

A standout performer in a forgettable opening day defeat at Oxford, just days after his arrival from Austria, followed by another eyecatching League Cup cameo against Stevenage.

But a sickening tumble and a dislocated shoulder in the following round’s trip to Crystal Palace marked a decline in output and, if one was being harsh to a very young man still adapting to his new surroundings, that early promise.

This outing marked his first start since the defeat at Swansea on September 14, when it was his misfortune to deflect a cross past Angus Gunn. There was also that calamitous cameo more recently in Wales that snatched defeat from the jaws of a win in the most trying of circumstances at Cardiff.

It was less Forson’s name on the West Brom team sheet, in the midst of a scarcity of resource, than his deployment on the right of an attacking three.

There was logic within the overall team selection, with Forson operating ostensibly in a more inside tract to allow the recalled Jack Stacey to get up on the overlap.

Perhaps Thorup had also looked at the six goal contributions in 12 career appearances when used as an attacking right-sided option at senior level. He did curl one left-footer just wide from the edge of the box on the half-hour mark, and later sidefooted at Alex Palmer from similar range.

No headlines this time, before he made way for Liam Gibbs in the second half, but this felt like a progressive step on the youngster’s Norwich journey. A point made by Thorup himself.

3. Opening for Onel?

Thorup teased after the previous Bristol City defeat that Hernandez was a viable striking option in the absence of talisman, Josh Sargent.

There was a small, if potent, sample in that League Cup tie earlier this season against lower league Stevenage thart in the right conditions Hernandez can offer a presence and a physical threat.

Ante Crnac was preferred again from the start at the Hawthorns after some lacklustre auditions prior to Emi Marcondes getting the nod as a false nine against the Robins. But it was another shift that largely passed the Croatian by, until Thorup turned to Hernandez.

It signalled a marked uptick in the drive and energy and the press from Norwich’s attacking spearhead. One burst into the box gave Gibbs a mobile target, before he reversed a ball just behind Borja Sainz.

Then in the closing stages, the Cuban slipped a gear t, race away from the Albion backline and was preparing to test Palmer when Torbjorn Heggem produced a perfectly-timed last-ditch tackle, as Hernandez approached the angle of the six yard box.

Perhaps with more games in the tank the makeshift forward would have make his decision a split-second earlier. But he must now come into the Dane’s thoughts for the Pilgrims.

Particularly with Thorup confirming this game was a touch too soon to restore Ashley Barnes to his matchday plans, after his recent return to training following a lay-off that pre-dated the head coach's arrival in Norfolk.

The simple reality is Thorup is wrestling with an almost impossible challenge – how do you replace Sargent from the rest of his attacking cast list? But Hernandez is in the equation.

4. Mainstay McLean

Norwich’s record since Kenny McLean saw red against Middlesbrough. P4 W0 D1 L3. Pretty definitive proof how big a hole the Scot leaves in this Norwich midfield, and his leadership in the dressing room.

McLean is one of the constants in a changing of the guard, from the boardroom to the dugout and beyond, now well underway in Norfolk. His drive, energy, experience and quality were key staples in the most positive early forays under Thorup’s stewardship.

For once, recent international duty with Scotland has had the desired effect in topping up his match minutes and ticking him over. One would expect Thorup to parachute him straight back into his plans for a midweek Carrow Road return against Plymouth.

A three game ban for the original lunging tackle, in trying to halt a Boro counter in a frenetic finale to a 3-3 home draw felt harsh – even viewed through a modern day lens. But the additional FA charge was entirely avoidable.

McLean’s Norwich career has long felt like proving a point to the doubters. But there is no doubting his influence, and his presence, on this side under this head coach.

Previous Norwich coaches have described him as indispensable. That would appear to remain the case, given the lack of dynamism across central midfield without McLean or for that matter Marcelino Nunez.